MICHAEL O’Neill says that he will only leave Northern Ireland for a club job despite being impressed by Scotland’s offer.

The 48-year-old agreed a new four-year contract extension with the Irish Football Association on Friday after rejecting the offer of replacing Gordon Strachan in the Hampden Park role in January.  

O’Neill, who lives in Edinburgh and represented the likes of Hibernian and Dundee United during his playing career, explained that he was not convinced that the Scotland job was the best move for him.

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Speaking to Sky Sports, he said: “Having been in the job six years, it was important that if I was to continue that I had to know 100 per cent that it was the right thing to do.

“You never know that until you have the discussions.

“The Scotland job was very attractive, I was very flattered by their interest. I live in Scotland, I’ve played half of my career there as well, so Scottish football is very close to me.

“But I just felt that at this time it didn’t feel right. I didn’t have the right gut instinct that it was the next move for me.

“I was very impressed by Stewart Regan and the SFA board but when I stepped back from it I felt that if I’m going to leave Northern Ireland it’s realistically going to be for a club job and not for another association, and particularly an association which is one of our near neighbours.”